GOP Congressman Flubs ‘ABC Sunday’ Trump Defense Attempt

Expert Russian analysts have testified before the House Intelligence Committee, which has taken on the Trump impeachment investigation. Witness after witness testified about Donald Trump jumping the gate of diplomacy and committing serious crimes. Yet, the Republicans, such as this representative, continue to defend him.

This past summer, the man sitting in the Oval Office allegedly sent his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine. The attorney’s mission was to force the new president Volodymyr Zelensky into “finding” dirt on Trump’s leading opponent in the 2020 presidential election. The ugly deal was that until Zelensky complied, the U.S. president would withhold $391 million in Ukraine’s direly-needed military funds to fight the encroaching Russians.

Representative Tom McClintock (R-CA) appeared on ABC’s Sunday morning talk show This Week with George Stephanopoulos with Martha Raddatz substituting. His excuse for Trump’s Ukrainian criminal activities was odd. It was Trump’s “blunt-talking language.” The representative claimed that POTUS did not “speak the delicate language of diplomacy:”

‘The implication is that this is an admission of guilt because the president found out about the whistleblower complaint and then immediately released that aid. That’s not what happened. Several weeks went by before that aid was released.’

Then, Raddatz asked the GOP representative whether Trump was “covering his tracks” during his phone call to the European Union (EU) Ambassador Gordon Sondland. She wondered about the EU ambassador working in Ukraine for Trump’s “no quid pro quo.” McClintock responded:

‘Well, the — the implication is that this is an admission of guilt because the president found out about the whistleblower complaint and then immediately released that aid. That’s not what happened. Several weeks went by before that aid was released.

‘Among all of the testimony of the hand-picked witnesses that the Democrats have heard for two weeks in public hearings, not one, not one was told that there was a quid pro quo. The only conclusions that they came to where supposition and impressions they got reading The New York Times.’

Then, McClintock said our commander-in-chief does foreign policy like a New York businessman. Then, Raddatz wondered whether the ambassador was bothered about anything POTUS has done regarding Ukraine. The representative responded:

‘Well, he didn’t use the delicate language of diplomacy in that conversation. That’s true. He also doesn’t use the smarmy talk of politicians. What you hear from Donald J. Trump is the blunt talk of a Manhattan businessman. He says what he means, he means what he says. That’s the only thing that’s remarkable about that conversation. But he was entirely within his constitutional authority and was following the statute that Congress adopted in granting aid to the Ukraine.’

Check out the ABC video of Radditz and McClintock where the representative said Trump did not use “smarmy talk of a politician:”

”Rep. McClintock: “He didn’t use the delicate language of diplomacy… he also doesn’t use the smarmy talk of a politician. What you hear from [Trump] is the blunt talk of a Manhattan businessman. He says what he means and he means what he says.”‘

Rep. McClintock: “He didn’t use the delicate language of diplomacy… he also doesn’t use the smarmy talk of a politician. What you hear from [Trump] is the blunt talk of a Manhattan businessman. He says what he means and he means what he says.” pic.twitter.com/NNVdUJaoUr

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Gloria Christie founded Gloria Christie Reports, a common sense column about liberal politics. She has a masters in Radio-TV-film and an MPA in business/government relations. Christie invented and implemented the first computerized patient chart. She also worked on Howard Dean's, John Kerry's, and Barack Obama's presidential campaigns. She is particularly interested in liberal politics, high-tech, complex systems, and change